"We Yugoslavs are deeply feeling how much the Czech culture is helping us and how great is its influence upon us. We are the most faithful allies of our brother Czechs, and at the same time their assiduous and I dare say very gifted pupils. At a moment when our oppressors want to build a German bridge over our bodies to the Slav Adriatic, we come to you as your allies. We shall fall if you fall, but our victory is certain."
Two other Yugoslav leaders, Dr. Srpulje, Mayor of Zagreb, for the Croats, and V. Šola, President of the Bosnian Sabor, for the Serbs, expressed the same sentiments.
After the speech of the Czech author Krejčí, M. Staněk, President of the Bohemian Parliamentary Union, concluded the meeting.
Stormy demonstrations then took place in the streets of Prague, where the people loudly cheered Professor Masaryk and the Entente.
On the same day also the Socialists had a meeting in which prominent Czech, Polish and Yugoslav Socialists took part.
The Polish Socialist deputy Moraczewski, from Cracow, declared that "the Poles, like the Czechs, are fighting for self-determination of nations." Comrade Kristan, speaking for the Slovene workers, emphasised the idea of Yugoslav unity. The spokesman of the Social Democrats from Bosnia, comrade Smitran, hailed the Czecho-Yugoslav understanding, and said that, although living under intolerable conditions, his nation hopes for deliverance, and like the Czecho-Slovak nation, demands liberty and independence. After the Polish comrade Stanczyk, the leaders of the two Czech Socialist parties, Dr. Soukup and Klofáč, delivered long speeches in which they emphasised the solidarity of the three Western Slav nations, the Poles, Czecho-Slovaks and Yugoslavs, and their identical claims for liberty and independence. Dr. Soukup declared that "Socialism is to-day a great factor not only in Bohemia, but in the whole world." The manifestation was concluded by the Czech Socialist deputy Němec, and by the singing of the Czech national anthem.
On the day following, fresh manifestations were held in Prague, and a meeting was arranged, described by the Czech press as the Congress of Oppressed Nations of Austria-Hungary. Among those who supported the resolutions were representatives of Czecho-Slovaks, Yugoslavs, Rumanians and Italians, as well as Poles. The resolution carried unanimously by the assembly reads as follows:
"The representatives of Slav and Latin nations who for centuries past have been suffering under foreign oppression, assembled in Prague this seventeenth day of May, 1918, have united in a common desire to do all in their power in order to assure full liberty and independence to their respective nations after this terrible war. They are agreed that a better future for their nations will be founded and assured by the world democracy, by a real and sovereign national people's government, and by a universal League of Nations, endowed with the necessary authorities.
"They reject emphatically all steps of the government taken without the consent of the people. They are convinced that the peace which they, together with all other democratic parties and nations, are striving for, will only be a just and lasting peace if it liberates the world from the predominance of one nation over another and thus enables all nations to defend themselves against aggressive imperialism by means of liberty and equality of nations. All nations represented are determined to help each other, since the victory of one is also the victory of the other, and is not only in the interests of the nations concerned, but in the interests of civilisation, of fraternity and equality of nations, as well as of true humanity."